NHL-Las Vegas becomes NHL's 31st team

June 22 (Reuters) - Las Vegas was awarded an expansion franchise after a unanimous vote by the National Hockey League's Board of Governors on Wednesday. * Las Vegas will start playing as the league's 31st team in the NHL's 2017-18 season. Will be the eighth team in the Pacific Division and the 15th team in the Western Conference. * To form a team, Las Vegas will select one player from each NHL team. No team can lose more than one player. Existing teams will be able to protect either seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie or eight skaters and one goalie. * Home games will be played inside the new, state-of-the-art T-Mobile Arena, located next to New York-New York Hotel & Casino at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, with a seating capacity of 17,500 for hockey. * Principal owner Bill Foley is chairman of U.S. title insurance services provider Fidelity National Financial and involved in winery investments around the globe. * The $500 million expansion fee to be paid to the NHL by Foley will distributed equally among the existing 30 franchises. * Las Vegas have received over 14,000 deposits for season tickets and has sold all of the luxury seats in T-Mobile Arena since a season-ticket drive was launched 16 months ago. * Team does not yet have a name but there is speculation it could be the Black Knights because Foley is graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, which uses that nickname for its athletics teams. (Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Steve Keating)